There are basic resources every baby needs for the best possible chance to develop as a healthy well-functioning human. Start with good nutrition, breast milk if possible. That baby is going to need stimulation, lots of looking, reciprocal interactions, exposure to language and interesting stimuli. If at all possible, you should live in a place […]
Preschoolers with clinical depression are more likely than their peers to have attempted suicide or to have had thoughts of killing themselves by age 12, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis. The findings, published recently in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, suggest […]
Medical imaging scientist Samuel Achilefu, PhD, and child psychiatrist Joan L. Luby, MD, both of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and […]
Children in poverty are more likely to have cognitive and behavioral difficulties than their better-off peers. Plenty of past research has looked into the physical effects of childhood poverty, or documented mental health disparities between socioeconomic classes. But Deanna Barch, chair and professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences at […]
Joan L. Luby, MD, the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the Ruane Prize for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. The prize honors important advances in the understanding and treatment of early-onset brain and behavior disorders. […]
Adrienne Davis and Joan Luby will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2020 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Andrew D. Martin announced. Davis, vice provost, the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law and inaugural director of the university’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, will receive the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement […]
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a worrying shift in my 9-year-old. His characteristic silliness — his goofy giggles and incessant bad jokes — had disappeared. He stopped wanting to go outside and said he was too tired to play. He crawled under his bed covers and lay quietly in his room, while the […]
The TV show “Survivor,” now in its 39th season, has spawned hosts of spin-offs and adaptations. Most cater to reality-TV lovers worldwide, but one surprising variation has become part of the toolbox researchers use to understand the effects of bullying on adolescents. Bullying is known to be a risk factor for depression, especially among young […]
Compelled by the potential to improve the lives of vulnerable children, emeritus trustee Walter Metcalfe and his wife, Cynthia, have committed nearly $4 million through outright and estate gifts to support the work of Joan L. Luby, MD, a highly regarded child psychiatrist. Luby and her colleagues have linked adversity, including poverty and neglect in the […]
Compelled by the potential to improve the lives of vulnerable children, emeritus trustee Walter Metcalfe Jr. and his wife, Cynthia, have made a commitment of nearly $4 million through outright and estate gifts to support the work of Joan L. Luby, MD, a highly regarded child psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. […]
A study released this week by the National Institutes of Health indicates that nearly one-third of Americans between the ages of 10 and 12 “screened positive for suicide risk in emergency department settings.” Meanwhile, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have been studying even younger children who think and talk about suicide – and their […]
Depressed children ages 4 to 6 who think and talk about committing suicide understand what it means to die better than other kids, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such children with suicidal thoughts and words — what psychiatrists call suicidal ideation — were more than three times […]
New research shows these kids have mental and physical problems as they grow older From Science News… …Maybe, says Joan Luby, a psychiatrist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Luby’s research has shown that treating preschoolers with depression helps the youngsters feel joy again, at least in the short term. “When […]
Experts agree that preschoolers are entirely capable of suffering from clinical depression. And that this depression is not always the result of abuse or neglect. From Fatherly… Until he began doodling bloody pictures of bleeding necks, April Lisbon wasn’t worried about the mental health of her four-year-old student. As a psychologist working with young children […]
Study involving behavior, brain scans may help ID issues early in life From the WashU School of Medicine News… Studying young children, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that kids who possess tendencies toward perfectionism and excessive self-control are twice as likely as other children to develop obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) […]
Early intervention supports kids in processing emotions From the WashU School of Medicine News… Children as young as 3 can be clinically depressed, and often that depression recurs as kids get older and go to school. It also can reappear during adolescence and throughout life. But new research from Washington University School of Medicine in […]
From Fix.com… According to the Centers for Disease Control, around 12 million children and teens are not receiving the mental health treatment they need. Mental health disorders like depression often hit people in early adulthood, but now a new report on NBC News explains that serious mental and emotional problems can begin with children as young […]
From the NBC Newsroom… Alex Crotty was just 11 when things started feeling wrong. It wasn’t just a matter of being unhappy. She always felt empty and miserable — never content or connected to other children. For years, she suffered alone, filled with shame. She switched schools, but that didn’t help. “I didn’t feel unloved. […]
Study is first to point to brain changes that underlie poor health in some children From the WashU Newsroom… Adverse experiences in childhood — such as the death of a parent, growing up in poverty, physical or sexual abuse, or having a parent with a psychiatric illness — have been associated with physical and mental health […]
Conditions associated with poverty appear to interfere with how key brain regions connect and increase depression risk in children From the WashU Newsroom… Many negative consequences are linked to growing up poor, and researchers at Washington University St. Louis have identified one more: altered brain connectivity. Analyzing brain scans of 105 children ages 7 to 12, […]